What the second professor taught me

Yesterday, I wrote about the influence of one of my seminary professors on my life, and the lessons I learned from him, both about being logical and about knowing the limits of human logic. Today I want to talk about the second professor, Dr. Jerry Flora. He was raised as a good Brethren believer and was the son of my Greek professor. Yes, both father and son taught at the same seminary for a while. Like his father, he was clearly a gentleman and a scholar. He had that quality of verbal gentleness that one finds among so many of the Brethren and the more traditional Mennonites.

As a scholar he was top-notch. He taught me not to fear to read the critical scholars, mainly because he was so good at taking them apart so thoroughly. His gentle voice, and his avoidance of conflict-begetting statements actually made his analyses all the more convincing. He was not angry at the world. He was not feeling “oppressed.” He was not inveigling against evil people. He simply knew his scholars. He was widely read and could read the scholars in any of several languages. And while he disagreed with many of the “critical” conclusions, he could also cite them in a way that showed that he had actively read and evaluated them.

From him I learned a love of scholarship that has stuck with me to this day. But, he did one more thing. He insisted that we must state what Scripture states. Yes, I know all the arguments about the cultural bias that is found in all interpretations, etc., etc. But, he was good at pointing out that most Scriptures do not need huge tomes written about their possible meanings. Rather, a generally “plain sense” of a Scripture that one reads is often sufficient to understand a rather general interpretation of what that writer is trying to say. But, like yesterday’s professor, Dr. Flora went farther. He insisted that we need to be willing to state the general meanings in various Scriptures even if it makes them appear to contradict. Like Dr. Kickasola from yesterday, Dr. Flora did not fear an antimony, a paradox. All that a paradox in Scripture points to is that our minds are not capable of grasping the totality of God’s plans or thinking, and that we must stop at a certain point.

Thus, Dr. Flora would have agreed with another Brethren pastor who said that when we get to heaven we shall see a huge arch. On one side of that arch will be printed the message, “whosoever will.” On the other side of that arch will be printed the message, “chosen from the foundation of the world.”  Somehow we must state that man has free will, sufficient to be held accountable before God and that the offer of salvation to all is a true offer and not merely an apparent offer, and, yet, somehow we must state that we are chosen and predestined from the foundation of the world. We do not know the resolution to that connundrum, but we do know that Scripture says both things.

And, so, Dr. Flora also taught me mystery, just like Dr. Kickasola did in his own classes. But, equally important, he taught me to try to let Scripture speak to me rather than me speaking into Scripture. He taught me to not be afraid of stating out loud what Scripture says, even if my sentences appear to contradict themselves. He taught me to approach Scripture with all the intellectual curiosity, with all the willingness to learn, that I could muster. He taught me to read a variety of scholars and not fear them. And, he also taught me to try to be as honest as I can be when I approach Scripture and when I try to preach what it says. These are qualities that I hope you have or will learn in your life.